


Homecoming

by Leaves_Crown



Category: Shoujo Kakumei Utena | Revolutionary Girl Utena
Genre: F/F, Love, Reunion, Urban Fantasy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-12
Updated: 2018-09-12
Packaged: 2019-07-11 13:07:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,211
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15972941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leaves_Crown/pseuds/Leaves_Crown
Summary: Her search for Utena brings Anthy to a tough neighborhood. As she starts helping the children there, she grows in confidence and sees a new future for her and Utena.





	Homecoming

Nine week ago she had stumbled upon this derelict building. Exhausted and hungry, she had fallen to her knees. Sleep had come on the cold floor of that dark, deserted place.

Except, it had not been as deserted as Anthy had thought. By morning, specks of sunlight came in through the holes in the wood. Little faces had surrounded her, curious, but scared. The children had given her water, a few nuts, a piece of tofu stolen from a super market. They had saved her really.

Anthy Himemiya was being saved again, even when she intended to do the saving now. She had not found her yet, Utena, the one who took on the agony from her. And now she owed these kids as well.

So, she stayed for a bit, knowing she needed strength if she wanted to find her love. As the weeks passed, she closed the holes in that wooden building, weaving them shut with her magic. The river flowing behind the building lost its foul smell. A truck stopped in the alley, with food that was to be thrown away. By coincidence, the driver fell asleep, or so the children thought. They had food for days. More trucks stopped in the weeks thereafter, and the children no longer believed it a coincidence.

Yet, they did not call her witch. She was their magician, a fairy even to little Ran. It made her smile for real, and she wished Utena could see her now. That was a debt she could never repay. It wasn’t just the agony that Utena had taken from her, but all the lies Anthy had told, and the people she had manipulated into fighting her.

Only now, free of Akio, she realized how much good she could have done instead. She saw it in Ran’s face when she gave him some grapes, and in Kei’s voice as she encouraged him to sing. With every time she used her powers to make these poor, abandoned kids feel more confident, Anthy grew stronger.

Two men came at midnight. They banged the door, screaming for them to get out. Even a place like this, a last refuge at the edge of city life, did they want to control. The kids around her whimpered, hid, trembled, but Anthy rose.

She walked through the newly crafted door and gave a cool look at their badges.

“This is a place of learning,” she stated.

The bulkier of the two officers already stepped forward, trying to intimidate.

“You have woken my students.” Anthy did not step back. “You are to leave now.”

“I don’t take orders from a street rat,” the man sneered.

She took off her glasses, and wiped them with her nightgown. “Leave.”

He pulled back his arm, ready to strike. She almost laughed. The man was so much slower than Utena, and would not stand a chance against the skills of any of those who had been in the student council.

In no mood to be gentle, she let the magic flow out of her. They sunk to the floor, mindless, and would be so for hours in the cold. For a terrible moment, she considered letting them freeze on the concrete. 

With a sigh, she called up a spell to keep them warm. The next day, they would wake up and stumble away, not knowing what they had come for, and desperate not for their boss to find out about their drunken state.

Anthy entered the hallway again and quietly closed the door behind her. The kids came out slowly.

“They’re gone? They’re really…”

She nodded. “No need to be afraid when I am here.”

“I heard his voice…I know him.” Ran whispered. “He kicked my brother. Kicked him so many times.”

Pausing, Anthy turned towards him. She had not known about a brother. “Where is he now?”

Ran turned away. “He…he died.”

Anger flashed in Anthy’s eyes. She must have looked scary, because the children edged back. “Was it that man who killed him?”

If he had, that warmth spell would evaporate.

Ran shook his head. “Not him.”

Anthy sat down on the carpey that had been delivered to them ‘by accident’. “I will tell you a story. You probably won’t be able to sleep anyway.”

Happy, they sat around her, as she began to talk of withering rose and how it bloomed again next spring. They fell asleep one by one, on the thin carpet. Yet, this was so much better than what they called a Youth Detention Centre, or anything worse. There had been talk of kids disappearing from the streets and she no more trusted police that came to bang on her door after midnight than the gangsters that roomed around. Her lips tightened. She would protect them.

She woke at midday. The children were up. Instead of rooming the streets, as they had done before she had come, they were working on their lessons. The scratch of pens against paper pleased her. A school should be there to help people develop, not to manipulate students into madness.

“Kei went out,” Rika said. “His toothbrush broke.”

“Broke?” Anthy repeated, getting up.

“That’s what he said. I’ve never had a broken toothbrush.”

Unease settled on her. Kei usually wrote quietly, doing the writing work she prepared for them without complaints. It wasn’t like him to just go out.

“Where would he have gone?” Anthy asked.

The kids looked at her, noticing her growing worry.

“The convenience store?” Ran suggested.

Not entirely convinced, she forced a smile. “I will have a look. You all stay here.”

The wind howled outside, and she gave up all pretence. Forgetting her shoes, she rushed to the door and yanked it open. She stepped over the many pieces of trash she had put there, discouraging people from coming to their door. At the end, there was more light where it led to the larger street beyond.

A car honked loudly and the driver yelled. Anthy no longer hesitated. The light already touched her nose when Kei appeared. He looked at her a little surprised.

“Where did you go?” she asked, relieved beyond words.

“My toothbrush. I got a new one.” He held up a green one.

There was no way he had paid for it. She gave him a stern look. “What did I say about stealing?”

He looked down. “It will make people notice us. Want to chase us.”

“Exactly,” Anthy said.

“But I didn’t steal it.”

Anthy frowned.

“She took it for me,” he said.

“She? One of your friends?”

“No, a lady. She smiled and gave it to me. I think she paid.”

Anthy let out a sigh and they headed back to their building. “That’s still attracting attention. I don’t want a group of old ladies protesting with the police to drag us out of here.”

“She wasn’t old. She’s very pretty. And strong. She helped the owner carry two crates of juice cartons.”

This made Anthy pause. “Does she work there?”

“No, she jumped onto a bus that was leaving. She almost hung outside the bus, but wasn’t scared at all. She just smiled and waved at me.”

It wasn’t much to go by.

Still, somehow, Anthy could only think of her.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm rewatching this amazing anime. It's been years since I last watched it, and I pick up on new things all the time. It inspired me to write this story.


End file.
